This invention relates to clocks and watches and, more particularly, relates to the display of hours and minutes on the face of such clock or watch.
Conventional clocks and watches having numerals or other indicia arranged on the face thereof wherein a pair of hands move about the face of the clock to indicate the time of day are well known. In such a type of timepiece substantially the entire face of the instrument is occupied by the indicia and the hands making it impractical and inconvenient to display other types of information. The advent of electronic timepieces utilizing liquid crystal displays or utilizing light-emitting diode display units has enabled those in the art to produce instruments to indicate the time of day by a side-by-side display of numerals representing the hour and minutes past the hour. These so-called "digital" timepieces also utilize substantially the entire face of the watch for the hour and minute display since the numerals must be large enough to be easily read by the wearer of the watch or viewer of the clock.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a display of hours and minutes for a watch or other timepiece which utilizes only the outer perimeter of the watch face, thereby leaving the central portion of the face available for other displays.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such an hour and minute display that is easily visible to the wearer of a watch or viewer of a clock, and by means of which the hour and minute display is readily decipherable.
It is another object of this invention to provide such an hour and minute display that is relatively inexpensive to produce and maintain and is readily adaptable to a variety of watch face shapes.